Local authority children’s social care should provide the conference with a written report that summarises and analyses the information obtained in the course of the initial assessment and the core assessment undertaken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 (in as far as it has been completed within the available time period), and information in existing records relating to the child and family. Where decisions are being made about more than one child in a family there should be a report prepared on each child. The information in the report for a child protection conference, which is be likely to be in the current core assessment record, should be consistent with the information which is set out in the Initial Child Protection Conference Report (Department of Health, 2002). The conference report should include information on the dates the child was seen by the lead social worker during the course of the section 47 enquiries, if the child was seen alone and if not, who was present and for what reasons. The core assessment is the means by which a section 47 enquiry is carried out. Although a core assessment will have been commenced, it is unlikely it will have been completed in time for the conference given the 35 working day period that such assessments can take.
